Emeritus Professor of Materials Physics and Innovation Policy, University of Manchester. Science & innovation policy, regional economic growth, polymer physics.
www.softmachines.org
Richard Jones
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For first time in decades, some optimism about future of what's left of Sheffield's steel industry, with big expansions at Sheffield Forgemasters & Special Melted Products.
How did Sheffield's specialism in steel arise? Some interesting lessons in a 7 century long history:
softmachines.org?p=3308
Great thread & linked piece on the post GFC regional divergence in risk premia demanded by investors across UK, another driver of regional inequality.
Some encouraging signs of reductions in Manchester & W Mids.
Drawing on brilliant work from Philip McCann & colleagues at @productivity.bsky.social
I think we do need a more honest reckoning of what was wrong with the conventional wisdom underlying policy making in that period (of which Wolf himself was an eloquent advocate).
FT piece here:
The infantilism of an ‘ungovernable’ Britain www.ft.com/content/a133...
For first time in decades, some optimism about future of what's left of Sheffield's steel industry, with big expansions at Sheffield Forgemasters & Special Melted Products.
How did Sheffield's specialism in steel arise? Some interesting lessons in a 7 century long history:
softmachines.org?p=3308
For first time in decades, some optimism about future of what's left of Sheffield's steel industry, with big expansions at Sheffield Forgemasters & Special Melted Products.
How did Sheffield's specialism in steel arise? Some interesting lessons in a 7 century long history:
softmachines.org?p=3308
But the problem is, it was the "grown-ups" who were in charge when our slow-motion economic crisis had its roots in the 90s and 2000s
it was the "grown-ups" who implemented the response to the unfolding crisis between 2010-2016
Wolf regrets that in politics, "infantile populism" has displaced "the grown-ups".
He's right that this doesn't make solving our difficulties easier - stable politics are needed to implement a new long-term policy direction recognising the trade-offs that need to be made
Wolf makes the under-appreciated & important point (drawing on Josh Martin's work) that the productivity slowdown began *before* the global financial crisis
The GFC should be seen as a consequence of productivity growth stalling, not as a cause
What does Andy Burnham mean by "Manchesterism"? What's behind his argument that places like Makerfield need to "re-industrialise"?
Some clues from the way Greater Manchester's economic strategy has evolved, since the city centre agglomeration story of Bernstein & Leese:
softmachines.org?p=3305
